Dead tank circuit breakers are commonly found in substations and are operable to selectively open and close electrical connections contained within a sealed tank filled with dielectric material for reducing arcing.
With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional dead tank circuit breaker is shown, generally indicated at 10, in accordance with an embodiment. Circuit breaker 10 is a preferably a three phase circuit breaker, and thus includes three pole assemblies including outer pole assemblies 12a and 12c and a central pole assembly 12b. Each pole assembly includes a first electrical conductor 14 carried in a first bushing 16 and a second electrical conductor 18 carried in a second bushing 20. As is known in the art, electrical power lines are coupled to the first and second electrical conductors, and the circuit breaker 10 selectively opens or closes the electrical connection there-between. A bell crank 22a, 22b, 22c, is associated with a respective pole assembly 12a, 12b and 12c. The bell cranks are interconnected by a gang-style linkage structure including interconnecting shafts so that all three poles assemblies are actuated at the same time by a single operating mechanism, generally indicated at 23. Each pole assembly 12a, 12b and 12c includes a tank 24 that houses the electrical contacts of the breaker 10. Each tank 24 is fixed to support structure 28 by conventional bolts 30.
The through holes that receive the bolts 30 may have large tolerances with can result in play in the bolt connection. Furthermore, poor bolt connections can occur due to bolting into low strength material of the tank.
Thus, there is a need to provide a robust tank mounting structure for mounting tanks to a support structure of a dead tank circuit breaker that allows accurate placement of the tanks regardless of tolerances.